Every year Grandma Schenk sent Karen, her only granddaughter, the same gift for her birthday. And every year, Karen stuffed the itchy bright yellow cableknit pullover sweater and itchier bold plaid pants into the back of her bedroom closet, where they joined seven years of identical itchiness that never saw the light of day or dark of night after their initial unwelcome unwrapping. One year Grandma Schenk died a week before Karen’s birthday, but still the familiar box arrived on Karen’s parents’s doorstep on time. Inside were Grandma Schenk’s well-worn steel knitting needles, still sticky and warm with her blood.

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Previously:
#1: 100 – “Food For Thought”
#2: 100 – “Mammu”
#3: 100 – “In A Pickle”
#4: 100 – “Meet Me”
#5: 100 – “Use Your Noodle”
#6: 100 – “Dental Gross”
#7: 100 – “Cold Cut Heart”
#8: 100 – “Sour Grapes”